NPR: Ex-U.S. Army sergeant charged with trying to pass secrets to China

[China]

Ex-U.S. Army sergeant charged with trying to pass secrets to China

 

A former U.S. Army sergeant who worked in military intelligence and carried a top secret security clearance was arrested Friday and charged with trying to pass sensitive American defense information to China.

 

Federal agents took 29-year-old Joseph Daniel Schmidt into custody at the San Francisco airport this morning, officials said. He faces one count of trying to deliver national defense information and one count of retention of national defense information.

 

Court papers say Schmidt served in the U.S. Army from 2015 to 2020, primarily with the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. He held a top secret security clearance, had studied Mandarin and worked as a team leader in spying operations.

 

Despite his background and training in espionage tradecraft, the details of the investigation suggest that Schmidt did not follow that training in his alleged efforts to pass secrets to China.

 

Those efforts began, court papers say, just over a month after Schmidt left the military when he traveled to Istanbul, Turkey. Investigators say his internet search history at the time includes searches for how to defect, including searching "countries that dont extradite" and "can you be extradited for treason."

 

While in Istanbul, Schmidt sent an email from his Gmail account to the public email address for the Chinese Consulate there. According to court papers, Schmidt introduces himself, explains that he has a top secret U.S. government security clearance and experience in surveillance detection and running spies. He allegedly offers to share his knowledge with the Chinese government, and asks for a face-to-face meeting.

 

Two days later, Schmidt allegedly created a Word document entitled, "Important Information to Share with Chinese Government." The document, which investigators recovered from Schmidt's Apple iCloud account, was later assessed by the Army to contain classified information.

 

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[Larry]

Part of me wonders what could make somebody do this. 

 

Part of me is glad that I don't know. That, if his motive were known, the topic would be dominated by people taking sides based on what "team" he is being painted as belonging to. 

[dfitzo53]

This dude. Not that changing the title is going to hide much from forensic IT people, but come on. You called it "Important Information to Share with Chinese Government"?